Burma Road = World's Biggest Roller Coaster?
 

You can really see how impossible it would be to run modern rail services on this line without Dublin-Metro-type collossal investment and rebuilding from the foundations up in this photo.

http://groups.msn.com/irishrailwayne...hotoID=125 38

There are dozens of sections of the Burma Road like this between Tuam and Coolooney. And this isn't even counting the 100 or so level crossings.

http://groups.msn.com/irishrailwayne...hotoID=125 40

I think I finally get it why Cullen ordered the cleaning of this section is being fast-tracked. It really brings home to people who know nothing about railways, how impossible a project the entire Sligo-Limerick WRC concept always was.

Even to the most casual observer, anyone who thinks that the WRC is a main transport artery really need to take a good look at these photos and think twice.

Mind you, some of us tried to tell some people this years ago...some people just can't deal with the truth. Hopefully now, these people will finally get it.

So are you for this or against it?

it looks pathetic!
i hadn't realised what a "tramway" meant
NFG, you do like to stir thing up alot but "rollercoaster is definently my new world for the WRC!!

There is a place called Curry in the west? Is that anything like I imagine it to be??? :D

Yep, and Tubbercurry (Or Tubber I think the locals call it) is just down the road. So's Charlestown (home of the Oasis family) and nearby Knock Airport. I had the pleasure of demaning possession of a pub there years ago. Great fun.

pub and contents or an empty building?

I can only see one being fun whereas t'ther would be "fun"

Pub and contents. Lessees werent too happy about it though.

So is the entire place made of Indian food or not? If so I'm moving.

It is. It is Korma that the WRC is opening and Navan isnt.

Only for it as a cycling and walking trail. Would be a collosal and pointless waste as a rail "corridor" considering the pay-off for all the money spent would be so little in terms of developing public transport usership in the West.

Save the money for a commuter rail service from Sligo to Boyle and turn the Burma Road from Tuam to Coolooney into one of Europe's premier walking and cultural trails.

This kind of thing.

http://www.railtrails.org/index.html

Would be very nice wouldn't it. Imagine the numbers of tourists it would bring in. Would revolutionise tourism in Connacht and couter-act the decline in walking tourists this country has experienced following some negative international PR damage done by some farmers chasing walkers off their land. The Burma Road could be the answer to all this.

If you think this is stirring it up, I am not dare going to post the photo of me sitting in a cow trough, which a famer laid across the Burma Road, rubbing a loofah under my arm.

Even I know were to draw the line.

Stop trying to curry favour with MeathonTrack.

Ah go on. Think I might've took that one, when we were doing the Burma Road 04 calander. Do you remember the full frontal photo we did on the driveway near Colooney (where tracks used to be)? The long grass came in really handy to make it look arty. We didn't need the Hornby models in the end.:D

cant see the photos they wont load
any suggestions or can somebody post them up here

They look to be gone. Probably because we were mocking them.

So when will work start on fencing Foynes, New Ross et al, or is the west of Ireland getting preferential treatment over the rest of the country?

Should we scream blue murder over the way other unused lines (in much better condition too) are being neglected for the WRC to get priority?

The P11 ethos is about developing infrastructure where it is needed. The WRC is by no means needed and got preferential treatment as there were votes to be had. Someone else will give details but all reports recommended against opening it, meanwhile Navan has been talked about for about 15 years and makes perfect sense to reopen yet it and all related infrastructure (Interconnector) are bottom of the list.

totally deserved preferential tratment IMHO, the west has had to suffer and as has been pointed out many times, continues to suffer thankis the the negative effect of the Dublin sprawl. The west need goods, counterbalancing and intutitive infrastructural initiatives such as this and I for one think its really really nice.

After all, its not WOT's fault about Navan not getting a railline, is it? Perhaps they should ask WOT for a hand?

Oh, and there is an operational line in Navan at the moment. It could probably be opened to passenger services for less than scratching along the WRC with a track machine.

Well, there you go, its self evident, isnt it? I mean, lets face it, WoT have done a superlative job there when these so-called projects that Paul was listing above have gotten nowhere. I'm not saying that those who push for them arent ardent and passionate about their hobbies, I'm saying that the Westmen are obvously just that much better at it and perhaps, just perhaps, we're missing the point there. Maybe, all things being equal, the WRC is a more deserving cause, makes better economic and envioromental sense and will deliver a more lasting and tangible benifit than those other ideas.

We've tried. IE said no.

The West of Ireland lobbies are simply brilliant at getting what they want and I would agree that 90% of what they demand they do indeed deserve.

But 3 trains a day from Sligo to Limerick for a billion Euro or so would be an obscene waste of public money. Just because somebody wants something, does not mean they always need, or deserve it.

There is a rusting relic of a bridge on the Sligo line which could fall into the Shannon if trains went over it any faster than 10mph - I think that is a bit more of a priority for rail transport development in the West of Ireland than being enchanted by the glorious sight of 100 year old ballast being exposed to daylight again for the first time in 30 years. How much of the Burma Road fencing and clean-up could of paid to have the Shannon Bridge replaced?

Let's be honest, the Western Rail Corridor is mainly a religion for some trainspotters who would gladly see the rest of the Irish Rail network turn to dust just so they could have the chance of one photo of a 071 hauling Cravens on a rail tour over Swinford Viaduct. If the Shannon Bridge on the Sligo line was declared 'unsafe' (which I have no doubt will happen in the future if the bridge is not replaced) and Sligo services curtailed at Dromod or Longford matters not, once we can see the ballast on the Burma Road again then that's what matters to these people...

The McCann Report should of kept everybody happy as it was fair, balanced and pragmatic all things considered. But just like the Independent Reviews into the Corrib Gas Field, there is a certain elements who do not want any result except the one THEY want.

The McCann Report is fine, let's stick to it and ignore the tiny hardcore elements who want the WRC at any cost including reopening the roller coaster between Tuam and Coolooney.

You mean every mickey mouse branch of FF in the west did a good job.

I be interested in hearing how you quantify the opinion expressed in your posts Thomas. Its contradictory to your previous opinions. (wow! committee row in public)

Oh and by the way, the McCann report was nobbled. Who did that? FF or WOT or should that be FF/WOT coalition. Anyone who can support this crackpot idea needs their head examined. The bus is already threatening the Dublin - Belfast Enterprise service. The WRC is dead already. Another waste of money from the muppets of Kildare street.

Have you been on something Thomas? Am I misreading or have you actually said the WRC makes better economic sense and will deliver more tangible benefits than Navan and the interconnector? :eek:

A couple of snippets from lookwest.ie:

It's not the west that suffers from the Dublin sprawl - It's Dublin.

Er, Derek, Nigel, Dave................................

You did read the posts properly?

You do know what satire is, dont you?

Chrstsakes................

to quote "Its really really nice"

Apologies Thomas :o

Sligo Co Co have announced that the population of Sligo town is to be doubled with all new residential and commercial development on the north side of the town, miles from the main railway station and the alingment of the Dublin-Sligo railway line which is the natural transport corridor for the town.

However, they are claming the proposal is sustainable from a public transport aspect and will boost the case for "future commuter services on the Western Rail Corridor"...[?!???!]

Where the hell is Cullen and Roche in all this? Their departments are supposed to making sure this kind of thing does not happen anymore. One of the conditions Cullen put on the later stages of the WRC happening was CoCos must plan their population growth along the course of the rail line.

Ah yes, the Athy Syndrome. Any town within 50 miles of the WRC will see some nice house price inflation, which is why on another thread I've been banging on about Craughwell all the time. This is not the same as the investment that WoT think it is.

Of course, we shouldnt have Estate Agents as County Councillers either, but what the heck.

The WRC beyond Tuam has been binned.

Nigel FitzG: If the WRC north of Tuam has been binned, then the taxpayers' money spent on clearing the Burma Road by O'Cuiv is an even more scandalous waste. The benefits are absolutely zero.

I wish I could share your optimism: I can only say "They haven't gone away, you know".

As a matter of interest - has the track clearance uncovered any of the WRC encroachments photographed by P11 members previously? What has the reaction been?

ACustomer

I disagree - clearing the WRC is not a waste of money. However, reopening it as a heavy rail line would be. I'm pretty comfortable with reopening all the way to Claremorris in time if the right case was made to be honest - I like the potential to run services south from Westport/Ballina. I remember interviewing for a job in Asahi way back when there was an Asahi and kinda worried that I might get it given the transport options ex Cork!

However, the Claremorris-Collooney alignment is not fit. The West's own McCann couldn't stomach it. That's not an argument to hand it over to any farmers who have encroached, but to develop it as a hiking/cycle trail or some other amenity. Maybe even run a bit of a heritage railway over some of it as in Waterford.

Clearing the alignment reinforces the State's ownership of the land and prepares it for productive use, just not a use that comes out of Irish Rail's subvention.

To put it simply and witnessed by me personally over the last 9 months......NO. If you visit IRN you will see "selected" photos that are not representative of whats actually happening out there. Driveways, car showrooms, national roads, by roads, gate houses, cabbage patches. Christ you name it and its "across" the burma road. It continues to be the joke that it always was.

The virgin mary will get back to Knock before any railway ever operates near it.

someone should post photos of all these obstructions on IRN - would be a riot!

We have access to them Sean, we'll put out a request to the various copyright holders.

Or else take a trip and do it ourselves.

The latest obstructions are new fences which farmers are putting across some parts of the line for the first time in 20 years because the recent clean-up has made this more easy to do. "Ironic" does not even cover it

I wouldn't bother with IRN either way, Sean - I had a looked there this morning and there is a bout of Gricer-cide going around. It's like a Locosexuals Waco or something.

This is the golden age of rail transport in Ireland and these poor fellows think it's the end simply because no locos to spot and a fence has been erected along a yard in Dublin and they can't see the trains. Forget the DART, Luas, Metro stuff, they are not even interested in Ennis-Athenry, Midleton or even Athlone-Mullingar as there'll be no locos and freight to take photos of. Since the locos and cravens were taken off the Ballina branch they are openly expressing their lack of interest in Irish railways enmasse. One of them even posted a photo of the Ballina loco farewell with "I WILL NEVER GO TO THE WEST OF IRELAND EVER AGAIN". In bold caps.

So much for the WRC being about "Regional Development" and their compassion for the welfare of the people of Connacht...

Oh they have. Very much so.

Look, Nigel, people know where IRN is, if they want to know about it they can go there. If you want top put up a big post being critical of IRN do it there, not here, or on Boards.ie.

I know it's monday morning but there are some crabby vibes going on here lately. I never slagged IRN in that post - just Genus Locosexualsist and their inability to see the woods from the trees with all the good stuff happening with rail in Ireland at the moment. I can't understand their negativity. I always felt sorry for the normal ones on IRN who have the same outlook as the rest of us and have been let down by oppertunistic tourists looking for hobby money and it being counterproductive to their railfreight lobbying and so on. If IRN keeps unloading the gricers, they have a great chance of being meaningful again. I see it as a good thing for them.

Jesus relax, spring is almost here and we won't have to tolerate Pat Kenny for much longer. Look at me, I do yoga and hurl abuse at the Postman every morning and am a better human being for it.



Back to the topic at hand, the WRC is never going to be opened north of Tuam. The recent clean-up was used as a means of have a closer look by senior Civil Servants in the DoT and it was a deciding factor in the WRC file being put in the bottom drawer again.

Tomorrow it will be announced that BE are to massively expand their bus services in the Northwest and Connacht with all north-south buses now serving Knock Airport the way they currently do with Shannon. I have already seen the new buses on the 64 and 65 routes on the N17 with a huge new decal on the side with Derry-Sligo-Knock Airport-Galway-Shannon-Limerick-Cork and they are even marketing it as the "Western Bus Corridor" running on the "Atlantic Road Corridor".

That's where you did it.

that thread is interesting though, I'll give you that, and if you feel good about it, well, that's understandable.

Fair cop, but I wasn't the only one. But point taken nevertheless.

Not so much feel good, as surprised to see the truth come out in such a blantant and spectacular manner. Pity IRN did not have the good sense to ban the gricers from their boards years ago as anyone who would be interested in their railfright lobbying would have not taken them seriously upon reading that stuff.

Too late now.